The Italian Association of Regional Science (AISRe) announces its XL Annual Scientific Conference. The meeting will host academics from various disciplines related to the field of regional science presenting their original scientific contributions.

The socio-economic struggle caused by the recent global crisis has pushed territorial systems to react beyond mere resilience. This tension needs strategies to improve the renewal and reconstruction of living and producing spaces, that would define a solid trajectory for growth and development. In particular, this is even more the case when in addition to a widespread economic crisis a series of events which could be considered as exogenous shocks impact the system, such as, for example, on the one side, the tensions related to the management of migratory flows to European countries, on the other side, the occurrence of natural and environmental disasters, mainly produced by earthquakes, hurricanes, global warming, human activity, or even terrorist attacks.

Another phenomenon that generates a pervasive feeling of insecurity, following the economic-financial condition, is represented by the increasing of economic and social disparities both between and within regions. This leads to the rise of policies regarding especially the closure of borders and the defense of local welfare levels but also a strong anti-establishment resentment, linked to the marginalization of many peripheral areas. Therefore, the challenge of resilience has switched from the ‘historical’ topics related to the regional economic outcomes, to more articulated and broader ones, embracing the so-called social resilience, a concept strongly connected with the one of economic resilience.

In front of these events, territories behave in a dramatic heterogeneous way. For this reason, regional science has recently started a deep reflection about the reason why some places were able to renew and developing as an answer to a shock, while others remain locked into a state of decline. Understanding the factors that influence the ability of a place to react to a more or less unexpected change means to identify the elements that underpin local development, as well as the governance policies and structures which can better anticipate and/or foster change.

In the XL Annual Conference, particular attention will be devoted to the analysis of methods and policy proposals which aim at tackling the issue of growth and local development after the long recession but also other kind of external shocks, concerning not only precise responses to these disturbing events, but also the strategies of renewal, adaptation and reconstruction that have to be implemented after a shock. This also means investigating the growing gap between central and inner areas, North and South of countries and Europe, spatial equity and national cohesion.

Finally, a special focus of the general topic of the Conference will concern the reconstruction activities adopted after seismic events and their comparison among different areas of the country. In fact, in 2019 the decennial of the earthquake that struck the city of L’Aquila will occur, an event that suggests a reflection about the responsibilities of the reconstruction of a territory towards present and future generations, offering an opportunity to make the point on these critical issues but above all on the opportunities that have been seized for a new growing path, starting from the material and social reconstruction of the local socio-economic fabric. At the very end this could be an opportunity for policy analysis that can usefully inform the accumulated knowledge about crisis management and post-event renewal.

The XL Annual Scientific Conference will also be an opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Italian Association of Regional Sciences with events that will retrace the activities carried out since its birth.

Recurrence of the fortieth year of the foundation of the Italian Association of Regional Sciences

40 years have passed since the foundation of Aisre and the Association wishes to celebrate this event through various activities: firstly, by dedicating a plenary session in the form of a panel discussion (coordinated by Patrizia Lattarulo) to retrace the past and propose renewed visions of the future of the Association; secondly, by proposing a collection of essays in two volumes extracted from past editions of Regional Sciences (edited by Roberta Capello and Laura Resmini); thirdly, by publishing a special issue of the Italian Regional Science magazine dedicated to the future of regional sciences (edited by Guido Pellegrini and Fabio Mazzola). Furthermore, an updated brochure about the association's activity and the governing bodies of the Aisre in the past years will be distributed (edited by Corinna Morandi, Lidia Diappi, Enrico Ciciotti). The opening evening aperitif will be dedicated to “Happy Birthday Aisre”.

Other meetings will be dedicated to the celebration of XL anniversary of Aisre, with the round table "AISRe and the development of Regional Sciences in Italy" chaired by the President of Aisre Guido Pellegrini and coordinated by the secretary Patrizia Lattarulo. Roberto Camagni, Riccardo Cappellin, Lidia Diappi, Lanfranco Senn, Alessandra Faggian, Ugo Fratesi, Marco Mariani will intervene. The journal Scienze Regionali - Italian Journal of Regional Science will propose a Lectio of an international academic on relevant topics about regional sciences: Michael Storper (LSE). He will speak about the following theme “The Rise and Fall of Interregional Inequalities: A Long-Run View”.

Parallel sessions

The A.I.S.Re urges the presentation of scientific papers on the typical themes of the regional sciences concerning the following topics:

A. Governance, regional and territorial public policies, European programming

1. Governance, planning, evaluation of plans and programs; European programming

2. Institutions, public services and territorial finance

3. International relations, policies and cooperation

B. Growth, regional and sub-regional disparities, local economy

4. Regional and urban growth and development

5. Sustainable development and green economy

6. Internal areas, high lands and rural development

C. Enterprises, innovation, value chains and production systems

7. Companies, productive systems and regional industrial policies

8. Business services and regional development

9. Knowledge, innovation and development

D. Methods of territorial analysis and evaluation

10. Methods and models of territorial analysis and spatial econometrics

11. Evaluation of public policies and interventions

12. Didactics and disciplines of regional sciences

E. Work, welfare, personal services and social policies

13. Regional labor markets, demography, immigration

14. Welfare, inequality, personal services and social policies

15. Education, training and employment

F. Wellness, culture and tourism

16. Indicators of wealth, social capital and local development

17. Culture, tourism and territorial marketing

18. Creativity and cultural districts

G. Urban planning, the real estate market and city development processes

19. Urban transformations and the real estate market

20. Urbanization, development processes and territorial planning

21. The urban and social redevelopment of periphery areas

H. Infrastructure, transport and network services

22. Infrastructures, accessibility and network services

23. Urban mobility and transport at the interregional and European scale

- Individual contributions that will be selected and assigned by the Conference Referral Committee to parallel sessions, according to the theme indicated by the authors when the abstract is submitted (see the 24 regional science topics previously listed);

- Organized sessions and policy sessions. Participants can propose themselves as session organizers (no more than two sessions per organizer) on specific themes, and are responsible to invite researchers and scholars interested in registering for the conference as well as proposing their own contributions. Coordinators are required to pay membership fees. If payment is made before 20/05/2019 registration for the conference is free. In the case of co-organized sessions, only one of the organizers may take advantage of the discount. Those interested in organizing a thematic session must communicate the name of the organization's scientific manager, the session title and the indicated number of scheduled interventions (5 for each 2-hour module) no later than March 1, 2019 to the Secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). The acceptance of the sessions will be communicated by e-mail within ten days. The accepted sessions will be progressively updated on the website and abstracts will be added at the time of admission, and will need to refer to the sessions;

- Posters allocated in a dedicated session and managed by A.I.S.Re. The printing and transport of posters is the responsibility of the authors. Interested applicants should submit an abstract following the same procedure for the contributions, specifying “poster” in the title. In order to foster interest in this means of participation in the conference, A.I.S.Re is sponsoring a € 500 prize for the best poster. To award the prize, a special commission will evaluate the thematic and methodological analysis of the presentation, as well as the communication and synthesis skills.

The instructions for the speakers, for the editing of the papers and posters, are available on the conference website in the dedicated section.

Each speaker, both individual and those invited to an organized session, must electronically submit an abstract (min.300 - max 400 words) of the paper or poster by no later than March 22, 2019 through the association’s website (www.aisre.it) following the procedure indicated on the site itself. Please note that each researcher will be allowed to present at most two contributions (papers and / or posters), though he/she can appear as a co-author on more than two papers. When sending the abstract, only the contributions relating to an organized session must be classified in the appropriate box and the authors of posters must state in the title that it is a poster. In order to facilitate the participation of foreign researchers and academics, sessions will be organized in English for the various topics of the conference. Authors who wish to present their contribution in English must include the abbreviation "EN" at the end of the title.

The submitted abstracts will be evaluated by a referral committee. The acceptance of contributions will be communicated to the authors registered at the time of submission, by April 12, 2019 and the list of abstracts of accepted contributions will be published on the website of the association.

The payment of the reduced rates must be received no later than May 20, 2019, through the Association's website (www.aisre.it). From the same date, the full papers can be submitted up until September 2, 2019. All submitted papers will be made available in real time on the site for consultation.

The Scientific Program of the conference will be drawn up on the basis of the registration completed through the payment of the fees and will be published on the website of the association during the month of July. If the payment of registration fees are not received by June 21, 2019, the accepted papers and posters will be removed from the final conference program. contributions that will not actually be presented at the conference will be canceled by the program and the database. Authors of contributions and posters will not be able to pay the registration fees during the conference itself.

The President of each session will be chosen and contacted by the Secretary by the members of the conference. The President will serve as session coordinator and each speaker will serve as the discussant for the next paper. Where the speaker is missing, the role of the discussant will be assumed by the President.

A.I.S.Re, to promote the dissemination of Regional Studies among young scholars, will reward the best works with the following acknowledgments:

- Degree Award and Doctoral Award. A.I.S.Re annually announces a competition for a degree award and a doctoral prize. The winners of the competition are required to submit a contribution from their degree or doctoral thesis to a session of the Italian Conference of Regional Sciences. The Association reserves the right to publish the essays considered particularly interesting in its series on Regional Sciences. Only applications submitted by April 4, 2019 will be considered. The selection will be communicated to the authors by May 7, 2019 and the list of the awarded works will be published on the association’s website.

- Award for the best essay presented by a young scholar (in collaboration with GSSI). In order to encourage the participation of young people, A.I.S.Re, with the contribution of GSSI, have decided to reward the most innovative and original paper presented and written by a young scholar of regional sciences. Only papers received by May 20, 2019 and written entirely by young scholars will be considered. Young scholars are understood to be a person who, by the start date of the Conference, has not yet reached 35 years old. The prize cannot be combined with the other prizes and awards established by AI.S.Re in the same year. The outcome of the selection will be communicated to the winner by June 3, 2019 and the list of the awarded works will be published on the association’s website.

Applications for participations and related instructions are published with a special announcement available on ww.aisre.it, in the Awards section.

- Award for the best poster. The award is dedicated to the poster with the most original content, exhaustive presentation, most communicative and capable synthesis. The prize will be awarded among the posters presented at the conference, following the evaluation by a specially created commission.

HOW TO JOIN THE ASSOCIATION / CONFERENCE AND REGISTRATION FEES

To register for the conference as an author or co-author of a paper, it is also required to register to the Association as a Member (Individuals, Collective or Youth). Members receive a subscription to the Regional Sciences journal for the calendar year following their enrollment (www.rivistasr.it/) as well as the volumes of the Regional Sciences Series (FrancoAngeli) published during the year of enrollment, enrollment in the Regional Science Association International (RSAI), which includes an online subscription to journal Papers in Regional Science for the calendar year following the enrollment and the opportunity to register for a reduced fee at the Annual Conferences of the International Associations European Regional Studies Association (ERSA) (www.ersa.org/) and Regional Studies Association International (RSAI) (www.regionalscience.org/).

Registration for the association can be made concurrently with registration for the conference as well as at any other time prior to the conference. Registrations made in December are valid for the following business year. The social year of the A.I.S.Re runs from July 1st to June 30th.

Registration for the Annual Conference entitles you to attend all sessions, a copy of all of the materials for the Conference and the benefit of services provided during the work of the conference.

Registration Instructions

To register for the conference and the association it is necessary to fill out the registration forms available on the association’s website (www.aisre.it).

Registration fees must be paid by a single bank transfer, at the expense of the payer, payable to:

A. I. S. Re. - Associazione Italiana di Scienze Regionali

IBAN: IT80T0200804642000105085070

Bic/Swift UNCRITM1O55 (for bank transfers from abroad)

UniCredit, Agency Via Ruggero Settimo 26, 90141 Palermo

indicate IBAN and Branch Identifier; BIC/SWIFT: UNCRITM1O55

You can pay with credit card using the PayPal online service available on the Association website.

Young members must send a copy of an identity document to the secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Type of Registration

Subscription to AISRe

Registration for the Conference

Total

by

20/05/2019

by 20/05/2019

by 20/05/2019

by 20/05/2019

Senior Member - contributing author to a thematic session

130 €

120 €

220 €

250 €

350 €

Senior Member - contributing author to an organized session

130 €

100 €

200 €

230 €

330 €

Senior Member - contributing author to a poster session

130 €

50 €

160 €

180 €

260 €

Session organizer

130 €

0 €

160 €

130 €

290 €

Young Member (1) contributing to a thematic / organized / poster session

65 €

50 €

160 €

115 €

225 €

Collective Member (2)

€ 1.300 (4)

0 €5 registered

160 €

0 €

160 €

50 €by 6° registered

160 €

50 €

160 €

Auditor not author of contribution (3)

0 €

120 €

120 €

120 €

120 €

Note:

(1) The term "young partner" means anyone who has not yet reached the age of 35 on the date the conference commences. This condition must be demonstrated by sending a copy of an identity document to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(2) The registration fees for the Conference are individual and apply to participants in institutions that are registered with AI.I.Re as collective members. For the first five members, participation in the Conference is free of charge.

(3) Auditors are participants who are not authors of contributions presenting at the Conference.

(4) The fee of € 1,300 is payable by the entity that registers as a Collective Shareholder and who also has the task of communicating the names of the five participants who can register for the conference free of charge.

Election of the Association's Board and Auditors

The election of the AISRe Board and Auditors will take place during the XL Conference at L’Aquila. As foreseen by Art. 18 of AISRe statute, members can send the candidacy to the secretary by mail or letter, 12 hours before the opening of the voting (by 11:30 pm on 15.9.2019), declaring for which position the candidature is presenting. Members can present only one candidature (www.aisre.it/associazione/statuto). During the opening ceremony of the Conference, the candidatures will be presented and the polls will be open. Associates can vote from 11.30 am of 16.9.2019 to 14:00 pm of 18.9.2019, when the polls will be closed. At 4:00 pm, during the ceremony of final greetings, the new members of the Board and Auditors will be announced.